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Darfellan
Darfellan For too long we were the prey. Now we are the hunters, and no more shall we mourn." -- Akilu Sea-Slayer The darfellans were once a peaceful race of hunter-gatherers who lived among the surf and sea stacks of forbidding coastlines. Then the sahuagin discovered them, beginning a century-long struggle that almost ended in the extinction of the darfellan race. The remaining darfellans are brooding wanderers who crave the chance to exact a final measure of vengeance against the sahuagin who wiped out their kin. A typical darfellan has a hulking, muscular build with a broad back, powerful arms, and a wide neck and head. A darfellan stands not much over 6 feet tall and weighs nearly 200 pounds. A darfellan's most striking feature is his or her jet-black skin, glossy and hairless, broken by varied white markings. The size, shape, and location of the white areas distinguish family groups and quickly identify an individual's heritage to other darfellans and those who know how to read darfellan markings. Occasionally individuals are born who are entirely black or, much more rarely, wholly white. Such births are always seen as portentous, and the children are destined to hold positions of importance among the people -- whether they are so inclined or not. The appearance of an entirely white darfellan is taken as a sign of great events, and the people's history is filled with stories of the upheavals that followed such births. ☀'Personality:' Darfellans tend to brood on the tragic history of their race, regarding it with equal parts pride and sorrow. You might be embittered by your lot in life,or you can make a point of behaving nobly no matter how dire the situation. At its height, darfellan society was a complex caste-based culture, but now too few survivors remain for a caste system to work. Still, darfellans are apt to categorize people by their occupation or function; learning someone’s job is more important than learning someone’s name. Hated by the Hidden Masters The darfellan first made enemies of the aboleths, who they call “foulers of the deep,” long ago. In many ways, the aboleths were the perfect foil for the darfellan: where the darfellan are forthright and brave, the aboleths are hidden manipulators. Once the darfellan became aware of the aboleths plans, they turned their considerable might towards stopping them at every turn. Few other races are as well-equipped to fight the aboleths as the darfellan due to their affinity for the sea As the conflict between them raged on, the aboleths turned more and more of their attention to exterminating the darfellan. At War with the Sea-Devils While the aboleths began hunting the darfellan in earnest, the seafarers began fighting a war on another front: the sahuagin. For as long as their mutual histories record, the darfellan and the sahuagin have fought over territory and hunting rights. These conflicts were minor and local, but as humans and other races began taking to sea in greater numbers, the sahuagin began to more aggressively defend their territories. When the other races proved too organized and numerous to drive off, the sahuagin turned their rage on their old enemies, and began an organized program of wiping out the darfellan. Hunted to Extinction The past century has not been kind to the darfellan. Between the machinations of the aboleths and the depredations of the sahuagin, almost every coastal dar community has been destroyed. Some may exist inland, on great lakes, but the traditional hunting grounds of the darfellan have been taken over by their enemies. Today, the few darfellan that remain are nomads, spending their lives on ships or living in other races’ cities and making themselves as useful as they can. The poet-warriors of the darfellan speak of a day when their race will unite to drive away the sea-devils and crush the foulers of the deep, but no one knows when, or if, that day will ever come. The New Tide The Darfellan suffered terribly and sought shelter with the sea-elves and merfolk and those races kindly took them in and they became close allies and the darfellan became in time worshippers of Deep Sashelas and he became known to them in the aspect of the great whale Mitauetus. Mitauetus is a brooding god, slow and steady like the tide itself and yet passionate and spirited like the crashing waves, he rarely speaks but when he does his followers listen. The seas are his realm and protects them fiercely. He see's seafarers as his worthy followers and his Darfellan as his lost yet found children. He holds a special hatred of the Sahuagin and their shark god and he urges his followers to wipe them out wherever they are found. He is a predatory hunting and warlike aspect of Deep Sashelas. He urges the Darfellan to gather and sends his clerics out to bring more of the lost into the fold and with the war versus the merrow beckoning, he seeks the Darfellan to add a new edge to the army and he tells them the war of the whale and shark is coming. The reckoning of the sauhagin is coming. Revenge is coming. Darfellan Names Like the rest of the darfellan language, darfellan names are polysyllabic, consisting of hard consonants and long vowels interspersed with clicks. Darfellan often use shorthand names for themselves and others, based on a person’s job or defining feature. In darfellan, darfellan names convey large amount of information, including a darfellan’s birthplace, family connections, caste, tribe, and so on. To outsiders, the names simply sound musical. Male and female names are identical, except for the click sound at the end of the name: a high click for a male name and a low click for a female name. Darfellan custom includes these clicks only when the speaker is not present. Dar names: Ak’inrinade-ch’ku, Debare!jajaiye, Ginika’kine, Tiwaray’wadunni. Darfellan Traits Ability Score Increase. Your Strength increases by 2, and your Constitution increases by 1 Age. Darfellan are always born in the water and begin swimming immediately. Under normal circumstances, a healthy Darfellan can live upwards of 200 years, and some isolated communities have elders far older. Alignment. Darfellan are almost always partially good in alignment. Evil Darfellan are rare, but delight in cruelty. Many are lawful, although more chaotic Darfellan appeared every year as their society scattered. Size. Darfellan are tall and muscular, standing over 6 feet tall and weighing more than 200 pounds. Your size is medium. Speed. Your base walking speed is 25 feet. Your base swimming speed is 35 feet. Darkvision. To hunt in the ocean’s depths, you have developed the ability to see in dark and dim conditions. You can see in dim light within 60 feet of you as it if were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. You can most colors in darkness Born Swimmer. You have advantage on Strength (Athletics) checks related to swimming. Echolocation. As long as you are underwater and not deafened, you have blindsense to 30 feet. Hold Breath. You can hold your breath for 1 hour Languages. You can speak, read and write Aquan, Common, and Darfellan. The Darfellan heroes were warrior poets and musicians. No Darfellan did just one thing: every soldier knew how to play an instrument, and every musician could fight. The great epics of the darfellan are all about those who powerfully blended the two. Their art was impermanent: vast mandalas on beaches that disappeared with the tide. Since the scattering of the tribes, the darfellan have learned to use the music and art of the cultures they join, but their stories of bards and scalds remain favourites among the diaspora.